That Blessed Star

Don’t forget to look up at Christmas!

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!

At this time of the rolling year, I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!

Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me! ”

— Jacob Marley, in Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

It is so easy to deny the child within us, the child that is accustomed to being little and ever-ready to look up at the awe of love above.